"Just to not break": how to create android-racer Yamaha Motobot

By: bogdan-chub | January 29, 2018 20:33

In October last year, Yamaha introduced a new version of the robot for motorcycle racing Motobot 2.0. In the test race, he was put up against a professional motorcycle racer Valentino Rossi, and although the car gave way to a good man for 32 seconds, the project team is not going to give up.

In October last year, Yamaha introduced a new version of the robot for motorcycle racing Motobot 2.0. In the test race, he was put up against a professional motorcycle racer Valentino Rossi, and although the car gave way to a good man for 32 seconds, the project team is not going to give up.

What it is?

Experimental project Motobot appeared in 2014. The company wanted to understand better what makes a person a good rider. An additional incentive was that no one had ever created anything like this. Managing a motorcycle is not an easy task. During the race, the tilt angles range from zero to 50 degrees in the speed range from 5 to 200 kilometers per hour. Androids have to perform a thousand calculations per second, otherwise it just will not have time to respond quickly to changes in conditions.

During the tests, developers are trying to reach the limits of the robot's capabilities, but still need to try not to break the motorcycle and Motobot at the same time. Accidents have happened, and several incidents the authors of the project call only "catastrophic". Simulations in the labs have simplified the task a little, only the software can not fully reproduce the conditions of the real world. This is not for you to outplay players.

Like a human, Motobot drives a Yamaha YZF-R1M motorcycle with the help of its own hands. For orientation in space, GPS and built-in sensors are used, and since the robot does not have to travel along public roads, Yamaha engineers decided to manage a simpler control system without a pile of cameras and lasers.

What's next?

A humanoid robot does not yet know how to walk on its two, but the following versions may learn to approach a motorcycle and sit on it independently. The company has confirmed the development of Motobot 3.0, but what will surprise the mechanical third-generation motorcycle racer is unknown.